Research, Literature, and Dissemination of Scientific Information

A scientific theory usually has gone through a long period of development.
For example, the concept of chemical elements stems from the notion that
certain fundamental substances exist. By a combination of them all
substances are derived. Robert Boyle proclaimed the concept of chemical
elements as follows:

I mean by Elements, as those Chymists that speak plainest do by their
Principles, certain Primitive and Simple or perfectly unmingled bodies;
which not being made of any other bodies, or of one another, are the
Ingredients of which all those call'd perfectly mixt (i.e. compound)
Bodies are immediately compounded and into which they are ultimately
resolved.

Boyle predicted the existence of some fundamental substances and named
them chemical elements. The farsighted prediction energized scientific
workers to find evidence or truth.

Why did other scholars believed Boyle, and accepted his theory?
In particular, why did Lavoisier have faith in this theory?

The statement gave Lavoisier the
courage to claim some substances as chemical elements before he had
any proof. Of course, Lavoisier not only believed Boyle's theory, he agreed with him.
The discovery of chemical elements led to Dalton's Atomic
Theory and Mendeleyev's Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. These
developments enables us to translate such a notion into modern language
as

An element is a substance that cannot be decomposed into anything simpler.
A combination of the elements make up all the natural substance or material.

Today, most people consider that there were 92 natural elements.
However, a new comer to chemistry may be confused after having seeing
many periodic tables list more than 100 elements, without realizing
the elements with atomic number greater than 92 were made by artificial
means. Actually, elements technetium (Tc) and promethium (Pm) are also
absent, because all their isotopes are unstable.

Researchers at the early stage often meet and discuss their findings
at conferences or in their mutual visits of each other. They learned
from each other and in they stimulate their thought via discussions.
The exchange of ideas and information among peers is the spirit on
the campus of the invisible college, which led to a great
success in scientific exploration. The entire society has benefited
as a result.

During the first half of the 20th century, the politicians discovered
the power of science. They supported scientific research by allocating
resource to institutions that undertook scientific research. Granting
agencies were set up to distribute funds to universities. Grant holding
professors take many young people under their wings and students flock
to famous professors for a piece of the excitement. Many more people
joined the research and development on campus of many universities.
Professors are leaders whereas students work as entrepreneurs. They
test their ideas by design various experiments. Experimental results,
their interpretations, discussions, and theorizations are reported in
refereed journals.

Due to the large number of scientific researchers, the number of papers
published has been grown exponentially over the years. Papers sending
to the refereed journals are usually sent out to two referees by the
editors of the journals. The referees are experts in the field of the paper.
The paper is published when both referees recommended its publishing.
Often, the referees suggest corrections and modifications. These papers
are primary publications or literature.

Primary publications are written by and for experts in their respective
field. The adjudication process tries to make the contents true and
accurate, and laymen will not get much from the primary literature.
Authors of review articles gather as many papers as they can in
particular fields, and these are published in review journals,
transactions, and monographs as secondary literature.

For business, profession and other applications, many professional
organizations take the responsibility to arrange scientific information
and data for their members. These are considered tertiary literature,
to which textbooks belong too.

Publication of information is a technology as well as a business.
Articles in magazines such as
Scientific American,
New Scientist,
Science etc appeal to
a very wide audience. Yet, some other magazines,
news media, and monograph aim at a readership at lower level. These
articles are often short essays and their information may have come
elsewhere. Therefore, they are not suitable for references.